Out of the box

In the dream, I was cruising along effortlessly on race day, when I was asked to step off course for a minute to do an interview (clearly I’m full of myself in my dreams). Next thing you know, I’m on a greyhound-ish bus running random errands (seemed logical at the time) and before I knew it, the 10:00 pm (the cut off time) had rolled around.

I was devastated.

I woke up only to laugh at the dream, because honestly, none of the above would actually happen….except for the possible devastation of not finishing.

And that is what my real life nightmares are currently made of.

Training is going….alright. For the average Joe/Jane, what we have been doing lately is more than enough to challenge my fitness level and keep me “in shape”. In shape, however, isn’t good enough. For me, I still feel so incredibly far behind. The three weeks of sickness really left my fitness level with a lot to be desired. I like to think that the years of training I have behind me, the past 9 months being the best ones ever, have got to count for something, right? I may not have always been training, but I’ve almost always been moving, in some way or another.

As I’ve been saying for months now, CrossFit style workouts have brought my fitness to a new level. Functional training, plyometrics, and basically constantly varying my workouts have forced me to train muscle groups that I’ve previously ignored (in other words, if I didn’t train it while running, it wasn’t happening). You never know what you are going to face in an obstacle course race, so training for everything and anything seems to be my best bet anyway.

Being summertime, and the fact that I’m currently unable to afford a real “box”, I’ve been training wherever I can on my own/with friends (and the awesome guy who may or may not think I’m crazy, but regardless partakes in the chaos). I’m very fortunate to be currently training here in Vermont. And let’s be honest: summertime in Vermont? I’d rather be outside anyway! There is no shortage of hills and trails here in this crazy little area, and plenty of places to squeeze in a no-equipment-necessary (or very little) WOD. Yesterday, we headed up to Harris Hill Ski Jump to perform a short little WOD I like to call “Your legs are going to HATE you.”. It went a little something like this:

It hurt. My legs were shaking so bad I thought I was going to fall down the stairs. But every time I wanted to quit, I thought of how much more Killington is going to hurt than 4 trips up the incredibly sketchy ski jump stairs.

And even more so, I thought about how much NOT finishing the Ultra Beast will hurt.

17 days. I can’t make up what I lost as far as training goes, but I can continue pushing my physical limits daily.

*Disclaimer: Although I am an ACSM HFS, please consult a physician before beginning any diet or exercise plan. If you choose to do any of the workouts featured on this website, you do so at your own risk.

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Comments

Every time I stop by to see what workouts you’re up to, I think, “OW!” This reminds me of the old Cross Country workouts our coaches would have us do; we had to runs up the biggest hill in the park where we trained dragging either tractor chains or each other.

I’ve had that nightmare, a few times during my “Ironman Training year from heck”, those kind of dreams suck…

Do Ultra Beasts Taper? Because I know you got knocked down by the Bronchitus but I would imagine there will come a point 2-3 days pre-race where you should consider some kind of taper – maybe just a a 3K run followed by death by Burpees?

I think in all sports there comes the moment where you reach the point where you can “do no more, without risking your race day.”

I know Ultra Beast and Ironman are as different as night and day BUT in one way the are exactly the same and this is how: You have no choice but to toe the line and take what the day/race has to offer you. As long as you walk away knowing you gave it everything you had to give on that day, you’re going to come away a stronger person, not matter what the time is on the race clock.

Having said that, “Kick some Ultra Beast @SS” Jim and I want to hear the race report in person the following weekend! LOVE YOU SISTER!

yeah, 3-4 days I will take it easy for sure. I can’t push any harder, so I’m just trying to maintain what I can. No more long runs (there haven’t been many unfortunately). Everything I do from this point forward is more for the brain than the body, because the mental strength is what’s going to make or break me.

This is a great post and exactly the kind of thing I’m always looking for. I’ve really been considering getting an ultimate sandbag. I’m curious what weight you use? I went to their site and saw all these diffent options but I really just want to buy ONE sandbag at an apporpriate weight. –Ericka @ The Sweet Life (sweetlifeericka.com)

Your dream cracked me up. I mean, who doesn’t run errands on a Greyhound? LOL! I’m doing the Beast in December so I completely empathize. I think whether you’re out for 3 weeks or have been able to train for 9 months straight, you’re never truly ready for the Beast. You just have to walk up to starting line with the courage and heart to tear it a new one. Good luck and can’t wait to hear the recap. Aroo!

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Meet Heather

I'm Heather, mom of two, ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist, and an overzealous athlete who cannot focus on a single discipline, so I train for all of them at the same time. When in doubt, I run...and then write about it. Read More…

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